
How Sean ‘Diddy' Combs got off on sex trafficking, racketeering charges after feds built ‘weak' case': experts
Federal prosecutors overplayed their hand in Sean 'Diddy' Combs' bombshell federal trial by building a case based 'more on sensationalism' with 'mobster-like charges' than a solid legal basis — ultimately leading to his stunning acquittal Wednesday on the most serious charges he faced, legal experts told The Post.
Jurors found Combs, 55, not guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering charges, while convicting him on lesser prostitution counts.
The outcome didn't surprise veteran defense attorney David S. Seltzer, managing partner at Seltzer Mayberg, LLC, who said the feds proved that Combs abused women and enjoyed voyeuristic sex, but failed to prove that the mogul's sins and kinks were part of a Mafia-like criminal enterprise.
Advertisement
3 Sean 'Diddy' Combs was acquitted on racketeering and sex trafficking charges Wednesday.
AP
'The government's case was weak from the start,' Seltzer, who wasn't involved in the case, told The Post.
'They tried to put a square peg in a round hole, using mobster-like charges, when all they had were glorified State Court charges.'
Advertisement
3 Prosecutors alleged Combs ran a criminal enterprise.
Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Prosecutors pursued a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act — or RICO — case against the Bad Boy Records mogul, alleging he used his business empire to conceal sordid crimes, including forcing his girlfriends into degrading, drug-fueled sex romps he dubbed 'freak-offs.'
Defense attorney and former prosecutor Neama Rahmani agreed that the outcome hinged on how prosecutors could prove he ran a criminal enterprise.
'Like I've said all along, this case will come down to racketeering,' Rahmani predicted ahead of the verdict.
Advertisement
'If the government doesn't get a RICO conviction, this will be a huge loss and the most expensive prostitution trial in American history.'
During the sensational two-month trial, Combs' former girlfriends Cassie Ventura and a woman only identified as 'Jane' testified they were coerced into disturbing 'freak-offs' with escorts.
But Nicole Brenecki, a New York trial attorney, said the testimony indicated that Combs' ex-girlfriends appear to have 'willingly taken part in 'freak-offs.''
'Voluntary participation, no matter how controversial, doesn't equal organized crime,' Brenecki said.
Advertisement
The prosecution's case fell apart because it was 'built more on sensationalism than a solid legal basis,' Brenecki opined.
'RICO charges require proof of an ongoing criminal enterprise with coordinated activity by multiple actors, not just deviant parties and disgruntled ex-girlfriends,' she said.
'Add to that the lack of paper trails, cooperating witnesses inside the alleged 'enterprise,' or any clear hierarchy of criminal role, and you're left with smoke, but no fire — and a not guilty verdict follows.'
3 One expert said prosecutors proved Combs had sexual kinks, but not that he ran a Mafia-like organization.
David Schwartz, a New York City-based trial attorney and former prosecutor, agreed that the prostitution charges were the strongest.
'The case was overcharged and the jury got this one exactly right,' Schwartz said.
Combs' defense team, by contrast, 'owned' the bad facts in the case and it 'paid off' for the hip-hop mogul, said Anna Cominsky, a professor at New York Law School.
Advertisement
'This trial was a major gamble and Combs won that bet,' she said.
'Everything is stacked against the defendant going into a federal case, in particular one like this. His attorneys were smart and they owned the bad facts. They fought on the things that mattered and it paid off.'
The federal prosecution office that oversaw the Combs case released a statement Wednesday that 'sex crimes deeply scar victims' — without commenting directly on the verdict.
'Sex crimes deeply scar victims, and the disturbing reality is that sex crimes are all too present in many aspects of our society,' US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton and Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations Ricky Patel wrote.
Advertisement
'Victims endure gut-wrenching physical and mental abuse, leading to lasting trauma,' the statement added. 'New Yorkers and all Americans want this scourge stopped and perpetrators brought to justice.'
The statement did not directly address the jury's decision to acquit Combs on more serious racketeering and sex trafficking charges and convict him only on lesser prostitution raps.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


New York Post
6 hours ago
- New York Post
Ukrainian drone attacks force Russia to cancel naval parade during Putin visit
MOSCOW — Ukrainian drones targeted St. Petersburg on Sunday, Russian authorities said, forcing the airport to close for five hours as Vladimir Putin marked Russia's Navy Day in the city, despite the earlier cancellation of its naval parade due to security concerns. St. Petersburg usually holds a large-scale, televised navy parade on Navy Day, which features a flotilla of warships and military vessels sailing down the Neva River and is attended by Putin. Last year, Russia suspected a Ukrainian plan to attack the city's parade, according to state television. 5 Russian President Vladimir Putin shaking with Russian Navy officers during a visit to St. Petersburg for Navy Day on July 27, 2025. Alexei Danichev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP 5 Putin, third from left, on board a Navy boat in St. Petersburg. Alexei Danichev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Sunday that this year's parade had been cancelled for security reasons, following first reports of its cancellation in early July. Putin arrived at the city's historic naval headquarters on Sunday by patrol speed boat, from where he followed drills involving more than 150 vessels and 15,000 military personnel in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans and Baltic and Caspian Seas. 'Today we are marking this holiday in a working setting, we are inspecting the combat readiness of the fleet,' Putin said in a video address. 5 People gathered at the frigate 'Admiral Grigorovich' in Kronstadt outside of St. Petersburg for Putin's visit. Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP 5 Putin greeting locals during the Navy Day celebration. 5 A woman walking past a replica of a Russian 54-gun sailing ship built in 1712 in St. Petersburg. AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky The Russian Defence Ministry said air defense units downed a total of 291 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones on Sunday, below a record 524 drones downed in attacks on May 7, ahead of Russia's Victory Day parade on May 9. Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the Leningrad region surrounding St. Petersburg, said that over ten drones were downed over the area, and falling debris injured a woman. At 8:40 GMT on Sunday Drozdenko said that the attack was repelled. St. Petersburg's Pulkovo airport was closed during the attack, with 57 flights delayed and 22 diverted to other airports, according to a statement. Pulkovo resumed operations later on Sunday. Russian blogger Alexander Yunashev, part of an official group of reporters traveling with Peskov, said Peskov had told him their flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg had been delayed by the drone attack for 2 hours on Sunday.


Axios
6 hours ago
- Axios
GOP leans into Trump administration's Obama accusations
Some Republican lawmakers on Sunday platformed the administration's recent claims that Obama-era officials waged a Russia-related conspiracy against President Trump — but stopped short of endorsing the president's allegations of "treason." The big picture: Trump is again bemoaning a years-long grudge against the widely held conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, following new accusations from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard of a " treasonous conspiracy" from former President Barack Obama to sabotage Trump's first term. The initial accusations centered around findings from the Obama-era intelligence community that Russia didn't alter vote tallies by hacking election infrastructure. But as Axios' Zachary Basu and Tal Axelrod note, no serious investigation ever claimed Russia changed them. Last week, Gabbard declassified a report from 2020 that she alleges proves the Obama administration "conspired to subvert the will of the American people" and engaged in a "years-long coup against" Trump. In a rare rebuke, a spokesperson for Obama slammed the administration's claims as "a weak attempt at distraction." Driving the news: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called for an investigation into the matter Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "If there is evidence of a crime being committed or suspected evidence of a crime being committed, create a special counsel to look at it," he said. "I think that's the best way to go." Asked by NBC's Kristen Welker whether the new controversy was an attempt to distract from the ongoing fallout from the administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, Graham argued he was trying to shed light on "something we didn't know before." The other side: Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, slammed Gabbard as a "weapon of mass distraction" on "Fox News Sunday," arguing there was "no new information" released. "It's new to you, but all of this information has been available to the House Intelligence Committee, including in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, when all these investigations and reviews were done under the first Trump administration," Crow said, later adding that no information had been "purposefully hidden." In 2020, a Republican-led Senate panel affirmed the intelligence committee's conclusion that Russia meddled in the election and preferred Trump over Hillary Clinton. Zoom in: But Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.), the chair of the House Intel Committee, slammed what he called the "Russia collusion hoax" in a "Fox News Sunday" interview, describing it as "a fraud perpetrated on the American people at the expense of President Trump." But "with regard to the claims of treason, I'll leave that to the courts to make that determination," he noted. The bottom line: As Trump launches fresh attacks against his predecessors, questions about his administration's handling of the disgraced financier's case are still rippling through Washington. The competing narratives of the ongoing Epstein fallout, over which the president has cried "hoax," and the reinvigorated anger over the Russia investigation are in many ways both rooted in Trump's vision of a "witch hunt" that's plagued his political career, Axios' Basu notes. Trump quickly seized on the Obama storyline, sharing a seemingly AI-generated video of the former president being arrested earlier this month, and more recently, an edited photo of himself pursuing Obama in a car chase.


New York Post
8 hours ago
- New York Post
90 prosecutors quit Nassau County DA's Office over claims of incumbent's ‘dictator' leadership: ‘No longer about justice'
About 90 prosecutors have quit the Nassau County District Attorney's Office since Anne Donnelly took it over in 2022, says her political challenger — who left the job herself, citing a 'dictator'-like atmosphere. Nicole Aloise, a Democrat running against the GOP incumbent Donnelly for DA, called out her opponent Friday outside the county courthouse in Mineola, LI — accusing Donnelly of fostering a toxic work culture focused more on headlines than justice. 'I left the Nassau DAs office after truly believing I would be there for life,' said Aloise, who quit there in 2023. 'I loved serving the community, ensuring that victims were heard and perpetrators were brought to justice. 6 Nicole Aloise, a Democrat running against the GOP incumbent Anne Donnelly for DA, accused Donnelly of fostering a toxic work culture. Nicole Aloise/Instagram 'Once Anne Donnelly took office — the job changed — it was no longer about justice, it was about her own agenda.' Donnelly's camp fired back by calling her political foe and the other former assistant district attorneys 'ethically challenged, soft-on-crime prosecutors like Nicole Aloise.' Aloise said she was one of the roughly 90 prosecutors in the office pushed to quit their jobs under Donnelly, claiming one of the reasons she left is because she was denied the resources she requested to try to expand a murder prosecution into a larger conspiracy case. 6 'Once Anne Donnelly took office — the job changed — it was no longer about justice, it was about her own agenda,' Aloise said. Nicole Aloise/Instagram 6 Aloise said she was one of the roughly 90 prosecutors in the office pushed to quit their jobs under Donnelly. Dennis A. Clark Some of the other former prosecutors said the alleged internal dismal culture shift under Donnelly also drove them out. They wrote to Aloise sharing similar accounts, including breakdowns in collaboration, shrinking support for long-term investigations and what they saw as a growing focus on politics over prosecution. 'You can either treat us like s–t or pay us like s–t, you can't do both — Donnelly did,' a former prosecutor told The Post under the promise of anonymity. 6 'You can either treat us like s–t or pay us like s–t, you can't do both — Donnelly did,' a former prosecutor told The Post under the promise of anonymity. Dennis A. Clark Aloise also cited a 44% spike in basic crimes during Donnelly's first two years in office — the highest level since 2013 — and attacked the DA for having the office's lowest felony conviction rate since 2014. County officials have touted a 25% drop in major crimes at the start of 2025, but Aloise argued that short-term improvements don't erase what she called a breakdown in leadership and the long-term damage to the justice system. But some local authorities blame the previous jump in crime and drop in convictions on former President Joe Biden's border policies and New York's 'soft-on-crime' laws, even going as far as previously calling Dem Gov. Kathy Hochul and her political party 'pro-criminal.' 6 Donnelly's camp called Aloise and the other former assistant district attorneys 'ethically challenged, soft-on-crime prosecutors.' Dennis A. Clark Donnelly's office contended that the prosecutors who quit their assistant district attorney posts also fit that description — and it said good riddance, framing their departures as a purge. 'The only exodus of attorneys, thankfully, have been by ethically challenged, soft-on-crime prosecutors like Nicole Aloise,' DA spokesman Mike Deery told The Post. 'Under District Attorney Anne Donnelly's watch, Nassau has been recognized as the safest community in the USA,' he said. 'The only exodus of attorneys, thankfully, has been by ethically challenged, soft-on-crime prosecutors like Nicole Aloise.' 6 According to DA spokesman Mike Deery, Donnelly is focused on rebuilding the office with prosecutors who support her tough-on-crime approach. Dennis A. Clark Deery said his boss has been focused on rebuilding the office with prosecutors who support her tough-on-crime approach and restoring public trust. He said Aloise has been previously accused of 'unethical conduct, corruption and abuse of power' after a group of law professors filed a formal ethics complaint in 2021 accusing her of prosecutorial misconduct during her time as an ADA in Queens over her father, Justice Michael Aloise. The complaint was eventually dismissed, according to a state letter obtained by The Post. Aloise's camp told The Post in a statement, 'If Anne Donnelly was a competent District Attorney and actually believed she had that many unethical employees, she'd have fired them rather than watch them flee her office en masse. 'Facts matter,' the statement said, pointing out that the stats used to determine Nassau County as the safest in the country are from 2014 and 2016 — before Donnelly took office.